Thursday, October 15, 2015

“And the ark came to rest in the seventh month”

From Likutey Halakhos, Shabbos
7:69

As found in Chumash im Likutey Halakhos:
Bereishis, pp. 77-78

Translated by Dovid Sears

All this is hinted in the Zohar
Chadash regarding Noah’s Ark. It is
written there (Parshas Noach, 38b-39a) that Noah failed to supplicate
G-d on behalf of his generation, but after he emerged from the Ark, and saw a
destroyed world, he began to weep over it. The Holy One retorted, “Foolish
shepherd! Now you speak, and not earlier?” Study what is written there
concerning the superior level of Moshe, who sacrificed himself for the Jewish
people and saved them.

[The Zohar Chadash] explains why
[Noah] did not entreat G-d’s mercy for the sake of his generation: he didn’t
think that even he would be spared. [He thought in his heart, “Would that I
succeed in beseeching mercy for myself and be saved—all the more so if I were
to succeed in praying for others.”] It describes at length how the Blessed One wanted
him to entreat mercy for Israel, no matter how debased they were. See what is
written on the verse, “ ‘And he sent forth the raven’ (Genesis 8:7)—This is
David who constantly cried out [to G-d] like a raven…” And also what is written
on the verse, “And he sent forth the dove… until it did not return again.”

The entire deficiency of Noah and its
correction concerns the need to be expert in both the ups and downs of life [as
discussed in Likutey Moharan I, 6]; he was not expert in this “halakhah”
of the ways of teshuvah, like Moses and the great tzaddikim who brought forth
the ways of teshuvah with such wondrous expertise. Although Noah was a
whole-hearted tzaddik (“tzaddik tamim”)—he did not realize that it was
possible to go out and to lower himself and gaze upon such evil people; to get
involved with them; to find in them some degree of merit, and to pray on their
behalf, and to arouse within them some good point. [By contrast,] this is what
Moses and the great tzaddikim who came after him endeavored to accomplish with
strenuous effort.

All this is included in the paradigm
of “expertise in ascent and descent” [of which Rebbe Nachman speaks in the
above-mentioned lesson]. Therefore, he assumed
that at best he could only save himself; for he did not realize the extent of
G-d’s mercies, how far they reach. Therefore, he was compelled to enter the Ark
and conceal himself there to be saved. For Noah’s Ark was built with the most
lofty wisdom and holiness; profound intentions (kavannos) informed its
height and length and width, as well as its entire construction, as the Torah
describes the details of its construction.

This alludes to teshuvah, in which
we engage on Yom Kippur. As the holy Zohar states (Tikkun 21,
54b), “Noah’s Ark—this is Yom Kippur.” And so it states there, “”And the Ark
came to rest in the seventh month…” (Genesis 8:4)—this is Tishrei.” Similarly,
it is explained in many holy books that Noah’s Ark also alludes to the speech
and words of the prayers and supplications of Israel.